Bass Guitar Scales : Top Reasons To Learn them
Learning bass guitar scales will improve your playing on
many different levels. It will allow you to jam with a band very easily, create
your own music, strengthen your fingers, explore different genres of music,
allow your music to convey emotion and ultimately allow your playing to advance
very quickly.
Firstly, when you can play bass guitar scales you can very
easily jam with a band simply by knowing what key they are playing in. This
means you can improvise in most situations easily, as you know exactly what
notes are available to you.
By knowing bass guitar scales it is easy to create music
because you already know how certain scales sound. You don’t need to experiment
with notes to know which ones give you the desired effect. This opens up your
creative channels and allows you to apply the scale rather than experimenting
with different notes.
By applying bass guitar scales you can easily
convey emotion with your music. For example to create a darker sound you will already
know that minor scales have this effect on your audience. To convey a happy,
bright feel, you will already know that the major third will help convey this
feeling. Thus by knowing how the different intervals contained in scales sound
and feel, you can convey your message more accurately in your playing.
repetitive manner you will strengthen your fingers and embed the scale pattern
in your playing. This will allow you to play effortlessly over time, as your
fingers will eventually fall into the scale shape patterns without much
thought. Your playing will be more enjoyable and relaxed as your fingers
naturally know where the right notes sit.
By applying different bass guitar scales you can easily zero
in on the sound of different genres of music. For example you may choose to
learn the major pentatonic scale if you are interested in country music, or you
may learn the Phrygian mode if you would like to add some Spanish “flavour” to
your music. Certain scales are matched to certain styles and genres of music,
by knowing the scales you can greatly add to the diversity of your sound.
So there you have it, by learning bass guitar scales your
playing will advance rapidly in many different ways. Even by learning just a
few scales relevant to the type of music you are interested in and knowing how
to change the key of these scales will open up many avenues to your bass guitar
playing.
